NOTES AND QUERIES. 229 
Flight of the Common Snipe.—Although I have seldom had oppor- 
tunities of studying the Common Snipe, yet I have observed on more 
than one occasion the flight referred to by Mr. Stubbs (ante, p. 196). 
Peculiar it undoubtedly is, and differs from the corresponding be- 
haviour of the Raven or Buzzard in that a horizontal direction is 
maintained.—H. Eniot Howarp (Clareland, Stourport, Worcester- 
shire). 
Flight of the Common Snipe.—Observing Mr. F. J. Stubbs’s notes 
upon the above subject, I take the opportunity of adding some remarks 
and a copy in part of a MS. at present in my hands, and by per- 
mission of the writer, Mr. P. Anderson, one whose personal intimacy 
with the habits of the Common Snipe I believe to be unrivalled by 
any other observer in Britain, and that round the whole circle of 
the seasons during the past (over) twenty-five years in Tiree (he went 
to Tiree in the summer of 1886), and in many other parts of Scotland 
previously. Before doing so, let me say that I also have remarked 
the “ plunging” flight of the Snipe many, many times, accompanied 
by the well-known “drumming”; and on more than one occasion I 
have witnessed the same “ plunging” flight without the least accom- 
paniment of sound, shortly afterwards followed by the twisting, 
erratic flight horizontal with the ground and close to it, and then its 
alighting. But I never had the opportunity of witnessing this phase 
of flight as described by Mr. Stubbs—belly upwards. I by no means 
cast any doubt upon the correctness of Mr. Stubbs’s observation ; I 
only regret that a similar opportunity has not been afforded me of 
clearly seeing the same. Indeed, from my experience and observa- 
tion of those curious and erratic phases of flights and other habits of 
this species and of others during the spring and summer, or courting 
and nesting seasons, I am not surprised at the erratic movements 
described by Mr. Stubbs. The backward plunge downwards I have 
also, I feel very sure, seen, but though I recall it, I do not find 
that I have noted 1t down, perhaps at the time distrusting my own 
correctness of vision on one or two isolated occasions. Truly, as 
Mr. Stubbs remarks, it is well to walk warily in all such observations. 
Perhaps the following notes may throw some light upon the subject, 
quite apart from what has previously been recorded from the early 
writings of Herr Meves, of Stockholm, and the illustration of the 
experiments of Dr. Bahr, as well as of others who have written on 
the well-known subject of the sound of the “ bleating”’ of the Snipe. 
Beginning with other matter regarding the bird in his general 
paper upon the “ Birds of Tiree,’ Mr. Peter Anderson has the follow- 
